Remember the games Alien Carnage/Halloween Harry that were published by Apogee back in the heydays of shareware? I know I do, having played a lot of Alien Carnage on my 486 after getting a disk with the game from a local shareware mailer. The game was actually developed by John Passfield and he has since co-founded Krome Studios and worked on the Destroy All Humans! franchise for Pandemic Studios.
This video games industry veteran has now set up a mobile games accelerator called Right Pedal Studios, based in Brisbane Australia. What’s an accelerator you ask, basically it’s an incubator of sorts providing funding small teams of 2 to 5 developers to make games for iOS and Android, with support in the form of working capital of up to $50,000 (kinda like some of the government MDEC programs you have in Malaysia), office space, mentorship and an alumni program in exchange for a fraction of the equity in each game.
So if you are based in Australia, Brisbane in particular and have a small team coming up with mobile games, you might wanna check this out. Some of my friends and clients started off in accelerator/incubator kind of environments and I must they’ve done well for themselves and their respective companies. Check out the press release below for more details:
Brisbane’s newest Games Accelerator; Right Pedal Studios is now open for applications. Successful teams will have access to funding to get their game for iOS or Android up and running. The package includes support in the form of working capital of up to $50,000, office space, mentorship and an alumni program.
The project is seeded by River City Labs founder Stephen Baxter, and is managed by games veteran John Passfield. Right Pedal Studios will fund small teams of 2 to 5 developers to make games for iOS or Android in exchange for a fraction of the equity in each game. Teams also get access to a number of games industry mentors who bring with them valuable knowledge from their years of experience.
Mentors include Morgan Jaffit, co-founder of Defiant Development (publishers of Ski Safari), Dan Vogt (co-founder of Halfbrick), Matt Hall, founder of KlickTock and developer of Little Things Forever, David Zwierzchaczewski, Application Engineer for Media and Entertainment at Autodesk, Gordon Moyes, convenor of Griffith University’s game program and producer of the Destroy All Humans! series, Pras Moorthy, product manager of Kixeye and co-owner of the Mana Bar, and Steve Baxter and John Passfield.
“Australia is home to some of the greatest mobile game developers in the world and we’re excited to help up and coming developers reach their potential.” said Steve Baxter. Right Pedal has partnered with a number of industry players including Griffith University and Pitcher Partners, each providing access to goods and services for each of the development team involved in the program.
“We want to team up with smart developers working on great games. Our goal is to help them where we can and allow them to focus on making the best game possible.” said John Passfield. Applications are open to residents of Australia and the first teams will enter production in February/March 2013. Interested parties can apply to the games accelerator program via the Right Pedal Studios website where they will find more information about the program and mentors.
